GİRNE yacht owners are to stage a “protest” over the state of the town’s historical harbour, which remains full of flotsam after it was battered by huge waves in December.

Cyprus Today visited the iconic waterfront this week to find glass, cans, plastic bags and other rubbish still floating in the water, and a newly paved walkway subsiding, two months after the storms which also caused the collapse of a lighthouse.

Inaction by authorities has prompted fears that tourists will be turned off by the scene – and raw sewage said to be still flowing into the harbour — with just weeks to go before the start of the holiday season.

Yacht Entrepreneurs’ Union chairman Faik Gencer told this paper the harbour was “to put it lightly, in a horrifying state”.

“It’s a mess from top to bottom . . . no-one is lifting a finger to clean it . . . The government shamefully staged a basic clean-up last week, picking up cigarette butts and some weeds – then posed for the press as though they had done something extraordinary . . .

“They have now installed garden lights in the ugliest of ways . . . along the sea wall. There are sunken boats that have been left to rot since the December storm. The whole thing is a disgrace, and this is what greets tourists.”

Mr Gencer said the continuing absence of a lighthouse posed a “great danger” to fishing boats and other vessels and that rocks under the sea wall were “unstable”.

He said members of his organisation would install their own solar-powered “EU-standard lighthouse” as a form of protest.

Cyprus Turkish Travel Agents’ Union chairman Orhan Tolun said the harbour was “the image of North Cyprus” and asked: “Why are we spending millions of TL every year at international fairs and exhibitions and using [it] as one of our most attractive destinations when it’s in such a mess?

“There needs to be urgent action by the government.”

Girne Mayor Nidai Güngördü said that he had approached ministers “many times” to discuss his proposal that a commission should be set up, including Girne Municipality, to restore the harbour to its former glory but had not had a response.

“There is an urgent need to make a decision before the end of March so that a clean-up operation can take place before April and May, when tourism begins to liven up.”

No-one at the Tourism Ministry, which is responsible for the harbour, was available for comment.